Paired Reading

Description

Parents can help their child at home to improve their reading fluency by means of reading aloud. This is important so that basic reading processes such as word recognition are automatized and the child learns to read more and more easily, resulting in an improved focus on reading comprehension. “Paired reading“ is an effective method, which takes about 20 minutes and which can easily be practiced at home.

Process

Please select a short text (around 200-300 words) and read this text aloud together with your child. Your role is to accompany your child and make it feel confident by serving as a reading model. While reading, follow the line with your finger. You can also help your child with words or understanding, if needed. If your child misreads a word, interrupt the reading, pronounce the misread word correctly and re-read the sentence together. Please adapt the rhythm of your reading to your child while reading.

Read the selected passage repeatedly together, at least four times, until your child is confident enough to read the text accurately and fluently. As soon as your child is prepared to read the passage without your help, it should continue to read aloud on its own. Please only proceed to the next text passage ounce you have made sure that your child really reads the passage accurately and fluently. If this is the case, you can start a new passage on the following day.

You should not exceed 15 minutes of reading time, as your child needs to concentrate considerably in this process.

Material

Select a short passage from children fiction books, from your child’s school books, or from other texts such as poems or non-fiction books. The text should not be too difficult and correspond to the reading level of your child.

Tips and tricks

Please do not forget to provide positive feedback to your child while it is progressing. You can also choose to take an elder brother or sister as a reading partner.

Further Links

A large variety of ebooks can be found under:

https://schouldoheem.lu/en/activites/comprehension-ecrite-comprehension-orale/ebookidscom

https://schouldoheem.lu/en/activites/leseverstehen/bibliotheque-numerique-de-litterature-de-jeunesse-libre

A practical example (in German) of how paired reading works can be found under:  

https://www.lesen.bayern.de/lesefluessigkeit/ or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGjuGTYDPwE